The Education Programs division, Nunavut Arctic College, has been focusing on various literacy initiatives and enhancements as part of our instructional processes in the Nunavut Teacher Education Program (NTEP). This falls in line and is supportive of recent literacy proclamations by the Hon. Paul Quassa, Minister of Education / Minister Responsible for Nunavut Arctic College.

The Year 3 NTEP students at Nunatta Campus, Iqaluit, are currently completing a course entitled Teaching Reading in the Elementary Schools (ERDG 215). The course presents components and strategies that support a Balanced Literacy Program in the Elementary years.

It involves the exploration of numerous strategies teachers use to help children in their literacy development. Consequently, as part of the course requirements for the Bachelor of Education degree, they are expected to present a lesson on some aspect of the material they have learned. On 25 / 3 / 14, they shared their findings with their classmates on the following subjects:

Renata Lee

Presented a Word Study lesson involving the segmenting and blending of word patterns. Renata used Word Ladders as a strategy for children to build on their knowledge of sound patterns to create and recognize new words.

David Korgak

Modeled the teaching of literacy concepts using the KWL chart where children studied what they Knew, what they Wanted to know, and what they Learned in their exploration of topics through reading.

Louisa Meeko

Taught a lesson where she explained and modeled Guided Reading and Shared Reading as preparation for children to engage independently in their own literacy development.

Nadia Sammurtok

Taught a word study class on categorizing word patterns using Word Sorts . Nadia modeled various strategies children can be taught to use in decoding words on their own in order to develop fluency in their reading and writing.

Sheba Pikuyak

Presented a teaching model of Grand Conversations where the teacher acts as a facilitator in the reading classroom and students are the leaders in the conversation and exploration of stories and word study.

We thank the students for their presentations and commend them for their interest and efforts in making the course respond to the needs of Nunavummiut.